and the majority leader to come up with a deal to troy to avoid falling over the fiscal cliff. want to bring in brian monroe, editor of cnn politics.com from san antonio, texas. brian, we all know what's at stake, especially that immediate 2% payroll tax increase in everyone's first paycheck of the year. it seems that the president used his bully pulpit to strongly encourage senators to get to work by sending a not so veiled message to themand their constituents. let's listen. >> the american people are watching what we do here. obviously, their patience is already thin. this is deja vu all over again. america wonders why it is that in this town for some reason, you can't get stuff done in an organized timetable. why everything always has to wait till the last minute. we're now at the last minute. and the american people are not going to have any patience for a politically self-inflicted wound to our economy. not right now. the economy's growing. but sustaining that trend is going to require elected officials to do their jobs. >> o'brien, as we mentioned, you're there deep in t